CTU threatens to sue CPS over unpaid stipends for dozens of athletic directors

The Chicago Teachers Union is threatening to file a lawsuit against Chicago Public Schools over what the union’s lawyers say is the delayed payment of some $300,000 in stipends for high school athletic directors.

On Monday an attorney representing the union sent the district a letter saying “to avoid a lawsuit” CPS should distribute the $7,525 stipends to athletic directors at 41 high schools who haven’t been paid for their work during the fall athletic season. The union’s lawyer gave the district a deadline of Thursday.

Illinois law requires wages to be paid no later than 13 days after the pay period in which they are earned, and “we are now months past that deadline,” attorney Josiah Groff wrote. The fall sports season typically ends by December. Prior to this school year, Groff wrote, athletic directors typically got paid within two months of their season ending.

According to the letter, the district also hasn’t paid stipends for nearly 70 athletic directors for the winter season, which concluded at the end of March. The union said it would take legal action if those aren’t paid soon, too.

A spokesperson for CPS said the district is reviewing the claims made in the letter and that about half of the athletic directors mentioned are scheduled to receive their payment on May 15, though it was unclear what season that work was for.

“The others have either already received payment or do not meet the eligibility requirements for the stipend at this time,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “The District is focused on processing these payments and is addressing the issue through the appropriate labor-management channels.”

The district has been dealing with ongoing financial troubles. CPS is projected to end the school year with a $45 million deficit and may have to contend with a $529 million deficit next year. Recently, CPS was caught up in a disagreement with the Archdiocese of Chicago over whether the district was holding back federal funding meant for students with disabilities who attend private schools.

In the letter, Groff attributed the stipend delay to an “internal disagreement within CPS” about whether the pay should come from the district’s centralized budget or individual school budgets.

Wendy Weingarten, the sports committee liaison for the CTU, said every athletic director should be getting the stipend and that should come from the district’s central budget. Weingarten and some athletic directors say CPS officials have recently told the union that athletic directors at large high schools aren’t eligible for the stipend.

According to the CTU’s lawyer, the 41 high schools where athletic directors have not been paid are some of the district’s largest, including Lane Tech, Whitney Young, Amundsen, Jones and Curie.

According to the latest agreement between CPS and CTU, the district is responsible for funding a full-time athletic director for large and extra large high schools, in addition to setting aside at least $3 million per year to use for stipends for part-time athletic directors and elementary school athletic liaisons, which are like athletic directors for earlier grades.

“If the board is providing that $3 million, I don't know why small and medium schools” have to use their own budgets to pay, Weingarten said.

The contract also states that the $7,525 athletic director stipends are intended for high schools without a full-time athletic director position.

Emily Crawford, who is the full-time athletic director at Chicago Academy High School, is among those who haven’t gotten their stipend for the fall season. She’s responsible for many tasks, such as scheduling buses to games, coordinating payments for tournaments, uniforms and equipment and tracking athlete eligibility.

Crawford doesn't have an assistant, so she's responsible for coordinating the school’s 300 athletes by herself. “We’re on the smaller end of large,” Crawford said. The stipend helps compensate for the extra hours she puts in, she said.

“I think last week I didn’t leave the school multiple days until 8 p.m.," Crawford said.

She thinks all athletic directors should get a stipend, and the idea that only smaller schools get one is backwards.

“The larger schools are doing substantially more work than a school that only has eight athletic programs. We have more students, more athletes, more coaches, more staff doing more work,” Crawford said. “I think it is really invalidating and disheartening that work is not being valued.”